“Do You Really Need More Than 4GB of RAM?”

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The answer, in my case, is probably not. At least for now.

On the get-more-RAM side: I do use a several virtual machines (VMs) regularly. With eight gigabytes, I could open all of them at once, and increase the RAM available to each of them too, and still have plenty of RAM left over for other purposes. I could also run Windows 7 in a VM, something that might be problematic with only 4GB.

On the not-right-now side: in my current setup, so long as I don’t open more than two virtual machines at a time, I don’t run into memory problems. And the current allocation of memory to each VM, while not massive, seems sufficient to prevent most swapping within the VM itself. But the biggest argument against it is the cost: replacing my current 4GB with 8GB on this machine would run about $750 from Newegg.com (the least expensive option I’ve been able to find so far). The advantages aren’t worth that to me.

On the other hand, electronics prices almost always drop over time. If this stuff drops fast enough, or if I find that Project X needs a lot of RAM to operate at full speed (possible, I’m not sure yet), I might end up getting it. We’ll see.

Of course, the answer might be different for you, especially as memory for most computers is a lot cheaper than for mine. Read the article and make your own determination.

7 Comments

  1. I get by just fine on 3 GB with Windows XP. Why 3 GB and not 4 GB? Easy! Because 32 bit software can only address 4 GB of memory that that memory has to include video memory. So between the 896 MB on my graphics card and the 3 GB of main memory, I have almost 4 GB of total memory and have never had a problem with running out of memory or even getting close.

  2. Ah, but do you run Mac OS X as your main OS, two Windows XP virtual machines (one for development, the other for games), and an Ubuntu Linux virtual machine, plus transient VMs for any OSes you might need to test? 😉

    As mentioned before, this is a 64-bit system, so it can take full advantage of 8GB of RAM… if and when the price comes down.

  4. I did mention that memory for computers other than this one is usually a lot cheaper. 🙂 Part of the problem is that there are only two memory slots on this machine, and both are filled already, so I have to buy a complete 8GB rather than just adding 4GB.

  5. Even so, multiply $113.99 by two and it’s still a lot cheaper than $750. What do you have there, a Mac Pro running Xeon’s Memory?!

  6. I should add though, that I need 8GB less than you do because unlike Apple, who even on the lowly Mac mini doesn’t use the gimped intel CPUS, the model of Core2Quad this Gateway comes with doesn’t include intel-VT, making it impossible for me to visualize its copy of Windows 7 64-bit anyway. (Or run, FWIW, “XP Mode” in the fancier versions of Windows 7.)

  7. It’s a MacBook Pro, using fast DDR3 memory. And I think I can translate your argument to “I need 8GB less than you do because my computer can’t run programs that would use it.” 🙂

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